Our Business is Young People

our history

The Turn Around Dance and Gymnastics Studio began in the fall of 1977 as"The Dance Shop". Their inventory included a record player, one small beam, and three bi-fold mats. Classes were held at the what is now known as "The Postal Playhouse". A few months later a move was made to the top floor of the Eagle's Club for dance and gymnastics classes. As the studio grew, gymnastics classes continued at the Eagle's club and dance classes were held in the Rasmussen's basement. Gymnastics classes were later moved to a storefront at 24 Central Ave NE. Eventually "The Dance Shop" was able to purchase the building which had contained City Hall, Police Department, and the Fire Station. All classes were then moved to the present location and "The Dance Shop" was renamed "The Turn Around" a.k.a. "TTA", to better reflect all the different types of movement being offered.

The 1st dance concert had 12 dancers and now the concert shows the talents of almost 200 dancers. We also have a competitive dance team known as "TTA Fire". The dance team competes in several competitions that are nation wide such as "Talent on Parade" and "Spotlight". Over the past years, they have won many awards and invites to compete nationally.

In the spring of 1978, the 1st gymnastics team, named the Gym-Kyns, competed one time during the first year with approximately 10 members. Unfortunately, they had to scratch on uneven bars since The Dance Shop did not have any on which to train. Today, the gymnastics program has grown to over 100 members and has 24 competitive team members known as "GK Blaze". The team competes under the USAG XCEL program and participates in several competitions a year. The 2012/2013 season had each and every team member qualify for State.

In 2015, The Turn Around expanded to Storm Lake after purchasing Springers gymnastics studio. The gymnastics teams name was changed to "GK STORM". In 2016, an 4600 sq ft addition was added to the Storm Lake location. This included two dance rooms (one 24 x 46 and the other 26 x 50), a boy and girls restroom, store, front desk and storage.

Currently, The Turn Around is the only studio in NW Iowa to offer a complete range of Dance & Gymnastics.